


Crazy About Her

by opendoor



Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 18:46:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13324260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opendoor/pseuds/opendoor
Summary: A fix-it for TOW Ross' Tan, because Rachel and Joey deserved better.





	Crazy About Her

**Author's Note:**

> A re-imagining of Rachel and Joey's first real date.
> 
> Just for some context, this is the episode where Monica and Phoebe try to avoid their faux-British friend Amanda, while Ross has a misadventure at a tanning salon (and Chandler gets pedicures!).

Half an hour before his date with Rachel, Joey was raiding the fridge over at Monica and Chandler’s. Monica and Phoebe were in the living room, putting on silly voices- he had given up trying to figure out what that was about.

He settled for a glass of juice- Monica really needed to up her leftovers game.

Monica twisted round to face him over the back of the couch. “So,” she said, in her regular voice. “You’re going out with Rachel tonight.”

“Yep,” he grinned, taking a sip of juice.

“I can’t believe you’re so calm about this,” Phoebe exclaimed. “I mean, this is you and Rachel. This is a big deal!”

Joey nodded. “It is a big deal. But I’m not worried…honestly, I’m excited. I’ve been crazy about Rachel for a long time. Now she feels the same way, I think everything’s going to work out fine.”

Monica and Phoebe exchanged a look.

“What?” Joey said.

No one answered.

“ _What_?”

It was clear neither one wanted to speak.

“It’s just,” Monica said gently. “Are you sure that Rachel feels the same as you do?”

“Of course I’m sure,” Joey said, impatiently. “If she didn’t feel the same way, we wouldn’t be here.”

Monica looked at Phoebe helplessly- she stepped in.

“It’s just, a week ago, Rachel was talking to me about you, and she said her feelings were just physical.”

“She said a similar thing to me a few weeks back,” Monica added.

“She…she did?”

Both girls nodded.

Joey’s brain was ticking over. Could he really have this wrong? He thought back to Rachel’s confession in Barbados- he had been so shocked, and then so torn about Ross, that he hadn’t stopped to analyse it.

He tried to remember what exactly she had said.

OK, she had suggested that she might be the right girl for him- he remembered that, because it had taken him a couple minutes to figure out what she was talking about. And then she had admitted she’d been thinking about the two of them together, for the past month.

Could a person really say all that, and just be talking about lust?

Perhaps, Joey realised with a sinking sensation, if the person was Rachel Green, they could.

He set his juice down on the table.

“Oh,” he said, softly.

The girls looked sympathetic.

“We’re sorry, sweetie,” said Monica.

“We just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Joey waved off their explanations. “No, no, it’s fine. I…uh…need to get going. Big date, you know.”

***

Joey and Rachel were laughing together as they walked back into the apartment. The date had been as effortless as their pretend date the year before.

Rachel thanked him for dinner as he took off his coat. He turned around to look at her.

“I thought you paid!”

The smile slid off Rachel’s face.

Joey laughed, awkwardly. “Guess we won’t be going back there.”

They both decided to breeze past the moment.

Rachel’s expression turned excited.

“So,” she said.

“Yeah.”

Rachel walked up to him, and kissed him.

As they kissed Rachel wound her arms round the back of his neck, bringing her body flush against his.

It was the stuff of Joey’s most desperate daydreams. Him and Rach, alone together, with nobody to stand in their way. 

The moment should have been perfect. But, and this had never been a problem for Joey before, he couldn’t stop _thinking_. What if the girls were right, and Rachel didn’t want anything serious? Joey wasn’t sure he could be unserious with her.

With a heavy heart, he pulled away.

“Is something wrong?” Rachel asked.

“No, well, yeah.” Joey took another step back. “Rach, what are we doing?” 

Rachel flicked a strand of hair from her face. “Well, you see, we were making out. But, obviously that’s stopped so…” she shrugged.

“No, I mean, what is this?” he gestured between the two of them.

Rachel frowned. “Joey, I thought tonight was going well- where is this coming from?”

“I talked to Phoebe and Monica,” he said. “They said that you don’t want a proper relationship- that you only like me in a physical way."

Rachel clapped a hand over her mouth. “I did tell them that,” she admitted.

“Well, did you mean it?”

It seemed like an eternity passed before Rachel said, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know!” Joey repeated.

“Yes, Joey, I don’t know! I don’t know exactly how I feel about you yet. All I know is I feel _something_. Something that makes me want to touch you and kiss you,” she ran a hand up his arm, “something that makes me not want to see you with other girls. I just want to spend some time together, and see where this goes. Is that OK with you?”

“I guess,” Joey said. It wasn’t everything he had been hoping for, but he had to admit it didn’t sound like a bad idea. After all, Monica and Chandler had spent some time messing around before they became a proper couple.

As though she had read his mind, Rachel said, “You know, I’m kind of jealous of Chandler and Mon. They got to fall in love in secret, without everyone eavesdropping and interrogating and…being Ross about it.”

The image of Ross, drunkenly stripping to the Chicago soundtrack floated to the front of Joey’s mind- he shook his head, hard.

“Yeah, that would have been nice,” he agreed. He hadn’t understood Monica and Chandler’s need for secrecy at the time, but he got it now. “Hey Rach,” he said. “Do you know what I’m thinking?”

She tilted her head, quizzically. “What?”

“That our friends aren't here right now.”

Rachel smiled slowly, and moved toward him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you liked, leave a kudos or a comment :)


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